Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville councilmembers have rejected plans for a glowing sign to be erected at Morgan Wallen’s new bar along the city’s neon-lit strip of honky tonks, citing his use of a racial slur that caused controversy in 2021 and recent criminal charges accusing the country star of throwing a chair off a rooftop near two police officers. The Nashville Metro Council voted 30-3 Tuesday evening against the proposed sign at Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen, which is set to open this weekend. The sign would have hung over a public sidewalk, similar to those at...

Ewe-turnOn Saturday, the Australian government announced plans to ban its live sheep export trade by 2028, a move praised by animal rights groups but condemned by farmers who were “shocked” at the 4-year timeline, even as the government offered a ~$71M package to help impacted businesses make the transition.Farmers in neighboring New Zealand, renowned for its shearling natives, will have taken notice.Indeed, NZ’s own sheep population continues to dwindle, with new data released by Stats NZ in early May revealing that the nation’s total number of sheep fell by 3% to ~24M for the year ended June 2023. That’s roughly...

Californians pay more at the gas pump than residents of any other state in the United States despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) so-called “plan” to crack down on windfall oil profits. “Is Gavin Newsom trying to help Donald Trump?” Is Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley question, citing his plan to raise fuel prices in Nevada and Arizona just before the November presidential election. Nevada and Arizona’s gas prices heavily reflect those in California due to them being significantly reliant (90 and 50 percent) on California for their fuel supply. According to recent reports, the California Energy Commission is looking to...

President Joe Biden revealed that his administration will be canceling more than $7 billion in student debt for 160,000 people. The White House issued a statement Wednesday announcing that 160,000 people in the United States would have their student loans canceled, erasing a total of $7.7 billion in student debt for those people. In June 2023, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision to block Biden’s plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt for almost 40 million people.

BuzzFeed’s stock is soaring after former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramasamy revealed that he’s taken an activist stake in the beleaguered media company in a bid to adjust the firm’s strategy. Shares of BuzzFeed gained about 20% on Wednesday after a securities filing revealed that Ramaswamy has acquired a 7.7% stake in the company. The stock popped more than 82% earlier in the day at its highs. “Stay tuned,” Ramaswamy told CNN through spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. In a statement, BuzzFeed Inc said: “BuzzFeed is purposely structured to protect its editorial integrity. We are always open to hearing ideas from our...

Thirteen fed-up counties in liberal Oregon have voted in support of measures to start negotiations to secede from the state and join conservative Idaho. Crook County became the latest to approve the 'Greater Idaho Measure' following a vote on Tuesday. The proposal seeks to move the Oregon border 200 miles to the west, meaning that 14 counties and several partial counties would fall under Idaho state lines. Organizers behind the Greater Idaho movement say east Oregonians are being alienated by the state's progressive policies which they blame for high crime rates. They claim a move to Idaho would allow residents...

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday said it is not Joe Biden’s job to secure the US border amid an invasion of millions of military-age men from the most dangerous parts of the world. More than 10 million illegal aliens – mainly military-age men – have invaded the US since Joe Biden was installed in January 2021. Illegals from the most dangerous parts of the world including the Middle East and Africa, have crossed over the border. Illegal aliens are raping and murdering innocent Americans. And what does the White House say about the invasion and carnage: It’s...

China’s latest test shows commitment to perfecting electromagnetic tech while US waffles between defunding or reviving its efforts The Type 072 destroyer (pictured) was spotted in 2018 carrying what military experts believed to be the PLA Navy’s first electromagnetic rail gun. Photo: Handout / SCMP China’s latest electromagnetic railgun test ultimately failed but underscored its relentless pursuit of the weapon, contrasting sharply with the US’s uncertain commitment to the potential game-changing technology. This month, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) tested an electromagnetic railgun by firing a smart bomb 15 kilometers into the...

Nvidia (NVDA) reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday that topped expectations while also announcing a 10-for-1 stock split and an increased dividend, following some of its Big Tech peers in doling out heftier quarterly payments to shareholders. The company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $6.12 on revenue of $26 billion, a jump of 461% and 262%, respectively, from a year ago. Analysts were expecting adjusted EPS of $5.65 on revenue of $24.69 billion, according to data from Bloomberg. The company reported adjusted EPS of $1.09 on revenue of $7.19 billion in the same quarter last...

A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday said Exxon Mobil can sue to bar a climate change proposal from an activist investor, in a case that has raised concerns about its future effect on shareholder resolutions. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman for the Northern District of Texas ruled that Exxon’s lawsuit can proceed against Boston-based Arjuna Capital, but dismissed the oil major’s claim against a second activist shareholder, Follow This, because the firm is based in the Netherlands. Exxon sued the two investors in January after they submitted a proposal to be tabled at the May 29 annual shareholder meeting...

Bill Maher locked horns with the hosts of ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, expressing how refusing to criticize President Biden risks sacrificing one’s integrity with their audience. “I’m nervous about saying anything against Biden, because I feel as though – not that I have so much power, and you have some more than I do, obviously – but are you afraid that you might, you know, influence the people who are on the fence?” co-host Joy Behar asked Maher. “I think you lose all credibility,” Maher replied. “I do. My bond with my audience has always been I don’t pull...

American Airlines is being criticized for its legal team’s response to a civil lawsuit against the company and one of its flight attendants, who is accused of secretly recording five girls in airplane bathrooms. American Airlines is blaming a 9-year-old girl for being filmed by one of their flight attendants in the plane’s bathroom. Estes Carter Thompson is accused of recording multiple girls by taping his phone to plane toilet seats. In a new court filing, American Airlines says the young girl should have known that there was a recording device on the toilet. “Defendant would show that any injuries...

Popular artificial intelligence tools are becoming more covertly racist as they advance, says an alarming new report. A team of technology and linguistics researchers revealed this week that large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini hold racist stereotypes about speakers of African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, an English dialect created and spoken by Black Americans.... (more)

Cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. keep getting older, hitting a record average age of 12.6 years in 2024 as people hang on to their vehicles largely because new ones cost so much. S&P Global Mobility, which tracks state vehicle registration data nationwide, said Wednesday that the average vehicle age grew about two months from last year’s record. But the growth in average age is starting to slow as new vehicle sales start to recover from pandemic-related shortages of parts, including computer chips. The average increased by three months in 2023. Still, with an average U.S. new-vehicle selling price...

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik filed an ethics complaint against Judge Juan Merchan for an alleged conflict of interest pertaining to his daughter’s role at a firm known for representing Democratic politicians. Merchan, an acting Supreme Court justice in New York, is presiding over the unprecedented criminal trial against former President Trump stemming from charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Stefanik, R-N.Y., filed the complaint with the New York State Commission on Judiciary Conduct, warning that Trump, who pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records, faces "a maximum of 136 years’ imprisonment" if...

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is very upset that former President Donald Trump will be campaigning on her turf. When speaking to the press on Tuesday, the House Representative for New York’s 14th Congressional district accidentally admitted that the trial is de facto election interference by hobbling one candidate’s presidential campaign. She actually compared it to wearing an ankle bracelet. Watch: VIDEO AT LINK................... “…the legal version of an ankle bracelet…” @AOC is so astonishingly stupid, she probably does not appreciate the ramifications of what she just admitted out loud. Congratulations, Alexandria. You just admitted to strategic and deliberate election interference....

Voters in Oregon were on the brink Wednesday of ousting progressive Portland DA Mike Schmidt and replacing him with one of his deputies who was once a Republican and has vowed to crack down on rampant crime and drug abuse. As of Wednesday morning, with about 63% of the vote counted, Schmidt was trailing Nathan Vasquez by 11.9 percentage points — a difference of more than 117,000 votes, according to the latest tally. “I am committed to fulfilling those campaign promises. I’m committed to ending the open-air drug use, to ending the open-air drug dealing that we have suffered from...

Fast food is no longer healthy for your wallet. Common fast food favorites increased in price under President Joe Biden’s so-called Bidenomics. Fast food inflation has a disparate impact across racial and ethnic groups due to different levels of fast food consumption. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 42.4 percent of non-Hispanic black adults consume fast food, compared with 37.6 percent of non-Hispanic white adults, 35.5 percent of Hispanic adults, and 30.6 percent of Asian adults. The higher price tag of popular foods may be creating political problems for Biden. Thirty percent of black men and...

Artificial intelligence scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI,” is urging the British government to enforce a universal basic income (UBI) to cope with the impact of AI technology. Universal basic income is a social welfare system in which the government provides every citizen with a standard minimum income. These payments are unconditional and transferred to citizens on a regular basis without any pre-qualification. The concept is in keeping with the Marxist ideal of wealth redistribution and has been proposed by socialist figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Hinton told BBC Newsnight that a universal basic income...

Though this ruling can feel deeply unserious, it has major consequences for one small business.What, exactly, defines a sandwich? It's a question people have been arguing over since the dawn of time. But, at least according to one Indiana judge, tacos fall into whatever that definition may be. In May, Allen County Superior Court Judge Craig Bobay ruled that "tacos and burritos are Mexican-style sandwiches." Though this ruling can feel deeply unserious, it has major consequences for one small business that was hoping to open a restaurant in the city of Fort Wayne. As the Associated Press reported, the legal...